Private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital have entered exclusive talks to buy Danish card payment services company Nets Holding for more than 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion), two people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Advent and Bain, which jointly own British payment processing company WorldPay and have teamed up for the Nets bid with Danish state-owned pension fund ATP, beat three other bidders in the final round of the auction, the sources said.

Nets and Advent declined to comment. Bain could not immediately be reached for comment.

The three other bidders were private equity fund Permira in partnership with Canada Pension Plan, French IT services company Atos and a consortium led by Swedish private equity firm Nordic Capital.

Nets Holding, which is privately owned by shareholders including Nordic banks Nordea, DNB and Danske Bank, was put up for sale last year when JP Morgan was hired to advise on the auction.

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